Left for resolving Singur issue with Mistry

Kolkata, Dec 30: With Cyrus Mistry taking over as the new chairman of the Tata Group, West Bengal’s opposition CPI-M Sunday asked the Mamata Banerjee-led state government to initiate talks to resolve the Singur land impasse.

The land row at Singur has entangled the automaker in a bitter legal battle with the state government.

“She (Banerjee) was opposed to Ratan Tata (former Tata Group chairman), but now that Cyrus Mistry has taken charge, she can speak to him and resolve the matter,” Leader of Opposition Surjya Kanta Mishra said at a rally in Hooghly district.

Iconic corporate leader Ratan Tata Friday retired as the chairman of the Tata Group and Mistry, named his successor, is assuming the charge.

The relations between Banerjee and Ratan Tata had been bitter ever since the Trinamool Congress led an intense peasant agitation between 2006 and 2008 against the then Left Front government’s bid to acquire land in Hooghly district’s Singur for the proposed small car Nano project of Tata Motors.

The agitation forced the automobile giant to relocate the plant to Sanand in Gujarat and propelled the Trinamool to power in West Bengal, breaking the 35 years of the Left Front’s uninterrupted rule.

However, in an effort to build rapport with Mistry, state Industries Minister Partha Chatterjee congratulated him for his new job and expressed optimism about an amicable settlement of the Singur issue.

The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader also accused the Banerjee government of “politicising the administration and the police”.

“There is a reward and punishment approach in the police now. The police officials who are efficient are punished and those who fail to perform their duties are rewarded,” Mishra said.